Mesoporous carbon materials have found an increasing number of utilities, most notably in water purification. In water purification, particularly desalination, mesoporous carbon materials have been applied as electrode materials in capacitive deionization (CDI) processes. When operated, i.e., by applying a suitable voltage bias across the electrodes, the CDI device removes salt species from the water by absorbing cationic species into the negatively charged electrode and anionic species into the positively charged electrode.
However, CDI technology for water purification suffers from several drawbacks that present significant obstacles to its widespread use. In particular, CDI technology generally requires appreciable voltages above 1 volt, and operates by a two-step continuous operation of ion absorption followed by ion desorption (electrode regeneration), the latter of which amounts to an additional energy burden. Particularly with the view of practicing desalination cost effectively and on a large scale, there would be a particular benefit in a water purification method with lower voltage requirement and without requiring a regeneration step.